This historic
photo above shows the Fokker FVIIb-3m NC1985 Southern Cross about
to touch down in front of a crowd of 300,000 at Brisbane's Eagle Farm
aerodrome on 9 June 1928 following its historic first crossing of the
Pacific Ocean by air. The crew comprised Australian co-Commanders Charles
Kingsford Smith and Charles
Ulm, and Americans navigator Harry Lyon and radio operator James
Warner.

The flight
had taken 83 hours flying time to cover the 7,388 miles (11,822 km)
from Oakland, California, to Brisbane, stopping in Hawaii and Fiji en
route. It was a feat of navigation and endurance unparallelled for its
day. Following the flight, Smithy was awarded, among others, the prestigious
Harmon National Trophy for Australia.

The Southern
Cross, later re-registered in Australia as G-AUSU/VH-USU,
was re-built from an aircraft used by fellow-Australian Hubert Wilkins
for Arctic exploration, based in Alaska. Smithy and the Southern
Cross became icons of their age, and the aircraft is today preserved
in a special building at the new Brisbane Airport, just down the road
from the old Eagle Farm airport. The photo below shows it in situ in
1998.

Smithy's
Story

Click
on the image of Smithy below to listen to his story of the flight from a
June 1928 broadcast*.

This is a
1.44 MB MP3-format file. Smithy's 1928 broadcast
was re-broadcast in 1952 on radio 3AW on the occasion of the first proving
flight by Qantas Empire Airways for the new Australia-South
Africa regular service. The announcer is Norman Banks.